Italian Cream Cake Recipe

Italian Cream Cake is a southern-style cake is bursting with pecan, coconut, and almond flavors. It’s frosted with a cream cheese frosting and beautifully decorated to make one impressive and ridiculously tasty dessert! Recipe includes a how-to video.

By popular request! After a slew of emails asking for an Italian cream cake, I’ve finally created my own recipe that I’m excited to share with you today.

Italian cream cakes are known for having a soft cake crumb loaded with pecans and coconut. I wanted mine to be plush and perfectly dense (but with a crumb closer to vanilla cake than pound cake), sturdy enough to handle three layers and keep chopped pecans suspended in the batter, yet still able to melt in your mouth. Tricky, right? Right.

It took a lot of attempts to nail this one down, and ultimately, I ended up using a modified version of my Chantilly cake. I nixed the brown sugar so that the almond flavor could shine, used the reverse creaming method for a beautiful, soft crumb, and topped everything off with a THICK layer of cream cheese frosting, with only a few small tweaks from my well-loved recipe. You’re going to love it, even if it’s not really Italian (more on that below!).

Italian Cream Cake

Italian cream cake is a southern-style cake is bursting with pecan, coconut, and almond flavors. It’s frosted with a cream cheese frosting and beautifully decorated to make one impressive and ridiculously tasty dessert!Recipe includes a how-to video.

Prep: 45min

Total: 75min

Yield: 12

Serving Size: 1 serving

Nutrition Facts: servingSize 1 serving, calories 1088 kcal, Carbohydrate 144 g, Protein 9 g, Fat 56 g, Saturated Fat 31 g, Trans Fat 1 g, Cholesterol 140 mg, Sodium 502 mg, Fiber 3 g, Sugar 119 g, unSaturated Fat 21 g

Ingredients:

• 2 ⅔ cups all-purpose flour
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon table salt
• 12 Tablespoons unsalted butter (softened and cut into 12 pieces )
• 1 ½ cups buttermilk (room temperature preferred )
• 2 large eggs (room temperature preferred)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ½ teaspoon almond extract
• 1 cup sweetened shredded coconut
• 1 cup coarsely chopped pecans
• 1 cup unsalted butter (softened )
• 16 oz cream cheese (softened )
• 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
• ½ teaspoon almond extract
• ¼ teaspoon table salt
• 8 cups powdered sugar
• ½ cup pecan halves (finely chopped)
• ½ cup toasted coconut (finely chopped )

Instruction:

1. Allow cakes to cool in their pans for 10-15 minutes, then run a knife around the edge to loosen cake from the pan and invert each layer onto a cooling rack to cool completely before decorating. While cakes cool, prepare the frosting.
2. With mixer on low-speed, gradually add powdered sugar until all has been added. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl and stir again. Frosting should be smooth and creamy.
3. If desired, immediately after frosting the cake, mix together finely chopped pecans and toasted coconut and press halfway up the side of the cake. Dust the top of each swirl with a light sprinkling of pecan/coconut mixture.

Italian Cream Cake

Prep: 25min

Total: 55min

Yield: 12

Serving Size: 1 piece

Nutrition Facts: servingSize 1 piece, Carbohydrate 149 g, Protein 11 g, Fat 68 g, Saturated Fat 38 g, Trans Fat 1 g, Cholesterol 201 mg, Sodium 505 mg, Fiber 6 g, Sugar 123 g, calories 1216 kcal

Ingredients:

• 2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 cup salted butter (softened)
• 1 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp pure almond extract
• 5 large eggs
• 1 cup whole buttermilk
• 14 oz package sweetened flaked coconut (divided)
• 1 1/2 cup pecan pieces toasted (divided)
• Frosting:
• 2 (8 oz) blocks cream cheese (softened)
• 1 cup unsalted butter (softened)
• 2 lb powdered sugar
• 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp pure almond extract
• reserved coconut (toasted)
• 1/2 cup reserved toasted pecans

Instruction:

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter and flour 3 [9] inch round cake pans or spray with baking spray. Set aside.
2. Sift the flour, baking soda and baking powder together.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the softened butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, pure vanilla and almond extracts. Beat until creamy and light beige in color, around 3-4 minutes
4. Add the eggs 1 at a time beating well after each addition.
5. Add the sifted dry ingredients alternately with the buttermilk. After all has been added, increase the mixer speed and beat until fully combined.
6. Mix in 1/2 of the 14 ounce flaked coconut and 1 cup of toasted pecans by hand.
7. Divide the batter evenly between the cake pans. Bake for 25-30 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center comes back clean. Cool completely on a cooling rack.
8. For the frosting: Cream together the cream cheese and butter until light, fluffy and pale yellow in color. Add the vanilla and almond extracts. Gradually add the powdered sugar, beating until creamy and smooth.
9. Line the edge of the cake plate with wax paper strips.
10. Frost the cake between the layers sprinkling each with reserved toasted pecan pieces. Add the final layer and frost the top and sides.
11. Press toasted coconut on sides. Decorate the top as desired with the remaining chopped pecans. (See in the Cook’s note for how to toast coconut)
12. Store chilled until serving.

Amazing Italian Cream Cake Recipe | Soft and DREAMY

FAQ

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